Ceramic Frying Pan vs Teflon

Frying pan or skillet is a very important cookware to have. Most of us own them in our kitchen, frying pan is a versatile cooking ware, where we can do fast cooking with oils over high heat. Many of us will choose the nonstick pan over the traditional stainless steel and such. There are two types of nonstick coating available these days, which is the infamous Teflon and the relatively newcomer ceramic coated pan. Both of them have their own non-stick properties comes from the compounds used to make them. Many people are still confuse which one is better between both of ceramic frying pan and Teflon frying pan. Here is some brief explanation about them, to help you choose which one suit you better.

About Frying Pan
Frying pan is a type of cookware which have a flat-bottom and used for frying, searing, and browning foods. Most of them have a diameter in 200 to 300 mm, with a low sides and flare outwards with a long handle and no lid. Some larger pan also featured with a grab handle positioned at the opposite of the main handle. The first frying pad used by humans may date back to ancient Mesopotamia. Frying pan also used by Greece people back then, and called tagenon, while in Greece they were called patella or sartago. Before the introduction of cooking stove in the mid-19th century frying pan used to have three legs and a handle. The legs are used to stand the frying pan above the fire. When cooking stove became popular legless flat bottomed cooking pots became popular.

Ceramic Frying Pan
Ceramic means harden clay that has been heat up by fire. Ceramic frying pan is a frying pan which is coated with a layer of ceramic. Ceramic coating in cookware is commonly made from non-organic minerals, primarily silicon and oxygen. Not organic here means not containing any silicon. Ceramic coating is beneficial, it is a relatively environmental friendly. The composition of this ceramic coating is sand and stone. Ceramic also ease the manufacturing process, ceramic coating only needs one layer to coat the pan and also required less time to cure it.

Ceramic coating is applied using a Sol-gel process. Sol-gel is the process that changing the inorganic liquid into a gel like substance to ease its appliance on any metallic surface. The method to apply it is by spray or by dipping the item in the mineral gel, and cured by using a high heat firing process. It is claimed that ceramic cookware can be heated up to 450°C and even when we accidentally heat it up beyond 450°C the ceramic coating will not release any toxic fumes. Ceramic has recently emerged in the market, it is predicted that ceramic will have many improvements in the near future. One the biggest issue with ceramic coating pan is that is not durable, the future double layering might be a great help to prolong its life.

Teflon Frying Pan
Teflon is a registered trademark of the Chemours company which formerly known as DuPont. It is used for its range of fluoropolymers, the best known of which polytetrafluoroethylene. This chemical compound was first discovered in 1938. Teflon is widely known to be used as a nonstick coating for pans any many other cookware. Teflon is non-reactive because of the strength of carbon-fluoride bonds, because of it, Teflon is also used in container and pipework for reactive and corrosive materials.

The discoveries of Teflon is accidentally happened when Roy Plunkett was working in New Jersey for DuPont in the 1938. Teflon is thermoplastic polymer, which has a solid white form in a room temperature and have a density for about 2200 kg/m3. It is claimed by Chemours that the Teflon melting point is 327°C. The main strength of Teflon is their strength, toughness and self-lubrication even in low temperature to -263.15°C, it also has a good flexibility at temperature above -79°C. The Teflon got these features from the aggregate effect of the carbon-fluorine bonds. The only chemical can affect this carbon-fluorine bonds are a highly reactive metals such as alkali metals, and when in a higher temperature aluminum and magnesium also have a highly reactive to carbon-fluorine bonds.

Ceramic Frying Pan

Teflon Frying Pan

- It is environmental friendly

- It last longer

- It will not release toxic fumes when heated above 450°C

- The PFC may disrupt hormonal balance in the body and caused many type of cancer

- Ceramic pans don’t scratch even when using metal utensils

- Teflon pans may release toxic fumes when heated at a temperature of 240-350°C

Conclusion
When choosing between both of ceramic frying pan and Teflon frying pan. It is best to consider your need first. Teflon is proven to be quite dangerous if heated in a very high temperature, but it will be safe enough to use when treat properly. It can also last for a pretty long period, so if you are not into buying a new pan once a year you might want to choose Teflon frying pan. At the other hand ceramic frying pan has a short life span, most people change their pan once a year, but actually it can be prolonged if you do not use oils when cooking or you have to thoroughly clean them with soap after using them with oils.